Could Jesse Kriel be the bolter for the Springboks against the All Blacks in Nelspruit?
While conventional wisdom would suggest that filling Cheslin Kolbe’s spot would go to the player who is of a similar type - ie Kurt-Lee Arendse - it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Springboks bring Kriel back into the wing role ahead of two very tough tests against the old foe in the coming weeks.
Much of the decision will be determined by who is selected at fullback, but it won’t be the first time that Kriel has popped up on the wing if the Boks do go this route. Among his 51 caps he has started at wing six times, with the most notable being the shift that then-coach Rassie Eramsus made in 2018 in the famous win in Wellington.
Kriel is often underrated, and while he isn’t as flashy as some of the other players, the utility role he can play for the Boks, his defensive organisation and loads of experience playing fullback make him an ideal candidate to take over the wing position.
While the Boks have not indicated yet whether or not they will continue with Damian Willemse’s fullback role, as witnessed recently in the series against Wales, it is likely that they will want to give the young talent as much game time as possible ahead of the World Cup next year.
The indication has been - from the game against Wales in November last year - that Willemse is very much the heir apparent to Willie le Roux and this has only strengthened with the news that Aphelele Fassi was dropped from the 42 man squad this weekend when it was named for the Castle Lager Rugby Championship.
One of the biggest positives that came out of the Welsh series was Willemse’s calmness under pressure and in particular the role he played when Le Roux was on the field - the way they marshalled the forwards and looked for space, giving the Boks a two-playmaker attack that, while needing a bit of polishing, certainly had enough promise to continue with.
There may be some thought of bringing back Le Roux for the All Blacks, but it is unlikely as the Boks have already committed themselves to giving Willemse game time, and nothing would give more confidence than selecting him again in the position.
After all, the team know very well what they have in Le Roux and what he can bring to the party, and Willemse is still developing, and putting him in high-pressure games can only sharpen his game.
He also remains the perfect utility player for the bench and a back-up flyhalf to Handre Pollard in an area that the Boks are a bit thin in at the moment.
But back to Kriel, and the Boks have been consistent in looking more to a fullback option than to a wing option when one of their mainstay wingers have gone down.
Kolbe’s broken jaw, which means he will be out of action until September, has opened up the one wing spot, with Makazole Mapimpi sure to be the other winger.
Should they persist with Willemse, it is doubtful that they will want to go into the All Blacks tests with another player who has few tests under their belt.
For that reason, Kriel becomes an option. While he is a player who is solid and doesn’t make too many mistakes, he is also exceptionally good positionally and on defence, something that will be tested against Wales.
The Boks selected him alongside Willemse at fullback for Wales last year, and while the fullback was concussed early in the game, passport issues for S’bu Nkosi meant they continued with Kriel on the wing for the games against Scotland and England, with Kriel earning his 50th cap in the process.
Back in November all the talk was of creating a place for Fassi, and dropping him out of the squad can only be surmised that he has aspects of his game to work on and the Boks aren’t quite ready to play him yet.
Coach Jacques Nienaber loves to talk about “roadmaps” for players and there may be a technical aspect or two that they have picked up that Fassi needs to work on with his franchise.
Back in November, when Kriel’s selection on the wing was debated and public sentiment was for Fassi, the Bok coach rejected talk that Kriel was an “experiment” at wing.
Clearly after 2018 and last year’s tour, he is very much an option - either at outside centre or wing - and his experience at fullback helps a lot in his selection as well.
“Jesse has played at wing for us before, so it's not an experiment. We know that he can do it," said Nienaber back in November.
"In 2018, he started at wing for us against the All Blacks in Wellington. With the rotation we made at 15, Jesse is nice for us in terms of bringing some organisational skills and almost 50 test caps of experience.”
Kriel was injured during the 2019 World Cup and was replaced by Willemse, and would be a safe choice for the Boks going into the All Blacks game.
That doesn’t mean that Arendse isn’t the exciting option that could be utilised.
At the end it comes down to the roadmaps, and the Boks would have planned for this scenario for a few months now.
If they do select Kriel it is for a purpose and shouldn’t be seen as a surprise.